Full of Good Cheese, Great Fun overall
Then, the rampaging begins. Ransack, sink, board, and plunder enemy vessels--and get promoted by the country you sail for (or any other country, if you hit their enemies). Promotions aid you in port with recruitment or ship costs. Got a big crew? How about attacking a town if you feel up for it? Maybe install a new country as sovereign?
You can visit many real ports up and down the spanish main and trade goods, visit the govener, maybe get invited by said governer's daughter to the ball (and mayhaps marriage be in the future if you continue to woo said daughter), repair and upgrade your ship, and visit the tavern to hear the talk of the town, recruit crew, and try and find info on buried treasure.
Bored with plunder? Go look for buried treasure or lost relatives, or you can try your hand at the merchant trade by being saavy in the port good arena (not easy, not successful, and the crew will hate you however...).
The Carribbean looks beautiful and the sounds are great, complete with singing crew when they're happy, waves, wind, storms, gulls, and hails from ship to ship.
The interface is pretty fantastic, with simple and intuitive keyboard commands that have hardly any learning curve. Or, use the mouse only if you're a 'clicker'.
Some complaints, of course, as with all things. It would have been nice if they didn't re-use the same or similar characters in all the taverns (and the same taverns for that matter at all ports). The character complaints actually extend to pretty much all character interactions except the 10 individual 'top pirates' (including yourself) which are uniqe. Plus, no character customization really except a few 'accessories' you can get. Sailing isn't the most realistic--good in an action game really, but still tedious and slow when beating hard upwind in a long sail. Also, occasionally a ship that 'struck her colors' (surrendered) may be able to sail away if the wind be not in your favor and ye be damaged (yes, piratical talk begins to set in).
Now, these be but minor complaints in what otherwise is an amazin' game. Ye may be sittin' fer but a few moments, or plan to, and then spend many turns 'o the glass and find yerself 'ungry, tired, and wonderin' where the time hast gone...addictive this gameplay is, says me.
For anyone with an interest in the old game, or someone with any interest in playing a just good old fun game (arcadey at that), then this may be for you. Oh, and don't forget International Talk Like a Pirate Day on Sept 19th...